Looking Beyond Our Present Difficulties

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My wife and I recently moved into our very first home. For quite a time we we were living out of boxes, waiting for workmen to finish their tasks, and the house was a mess. But what kept us going was a vision of what it would be like beyond the current upheavel. We could see the potential for a pleasant and peaceful home. We could see family and friends dropping in. We could sense the warm memories yet to be generated. It was the looking beyond the current difficulties that inspired us to press on.

This is equally true with our ministry. Most of our projects and outreaches are usually beset with difficulties and challenges. Take Project India for example. We see so much work to be done. There are hundreds of villages for our recording teams to travel to throughout the nation, probably contending with heat, opposition and setbacks. Our teams know that the task of recording effective material is an exacting and arduous process.

In his article on language mapping, Levi Noble gives us a glimpse of the difficulties of mapping language locations. Many such trips are planned. We must find where the least-reached peoples live so that we can go to them. But it won't be easy.

Many of us at home base, labor long and hard at our work stations. We wrestle with an array of challenges as our staff process sound files, build a comprehensive language database, do promotion, handle emails, work through plans for funding overseas bases, and the list goes on. The work can often be stressful at times.

However, in all areas of our work we need to look always beyond our present difficulties and see the outcome of our labors - people hearing about Jesus for the first time. We need to catch a vision for an abundant spiritual harvest even though we may still be in the planting stage. We know that God purposes a fruitful crop.

Our Lord, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross. And we too, like our Master, must joyfully endure and work through whatever difficulties and obstacles are in our way. We must look beyond whatever our present difficulties are so that we don't lose heart and give up. At stake are the salvation of many souls and the exaltation of Jesus Christ among the nations.